israel is testing egypt. there's more uncertainty than ever about syria, its relationship with iran, whether it can hold lebanon together, what is hezbollah doing now that its backers are in their own fights inside syria. the evolving role of qatar and saudi arabia, and turkey playing a role. it's enormous. of anything at the security conference, this is probably the least secure discussion there is. i'm reminded of bob dylan's favorite song, "along the watchtower," and that should be our anthem this morning. there must be a way out of here so let's aim for some relief and less confusion, and i want to propose the following format just for the beginning of this panel, and then i think i want to open it up to a lot of questions from the floor because i'm there are a lot of questions swimming in your head. i'd like to propose our panelists talk about the flow of the situation right now, especially in syria. the what if scenarios. we'll spend a little bit of time on, and then their recommendations and context an